The most metal concert reviews in LA

For the millionth time seeing Wayne, I got to spend the night with birthday girl Jaelythe and Edweirdo. But this show was different than all the others. It was the first tour of Wayne Static as a solo artist. He has said he wanted to make an album with no compromise and Pighammer is the result.

Now the drummers and guitarists have come and gone, but the other piece of the Static-X puzzle that had remained constant was Tony Campos on bass. I feel that he has always been as much of a part of the band as Wayne has and not seeing him on the stage that night was a little heartbreaking. Still, the vibe of a Static-X show remained. The band is different but the crowd is not. We all came back to support Wayne.

The set consisted mostly of classic Static-X tracks with something played from every studio release . Only Assassins of Youth and Static Killer were played from the new Pighammer album. The Only made it’s way back to the setlist after not being played for a few tours. Between songs Wayne still called for shots brought out by his fully clothed wife, Tera Wray. She was also out dancing with her girlfriends during songs.

This tour and album are Wayne Static’s way of declaring himself King of Evil Disco. If you were ever a fan of Static-X, do yourself a favor and check out the Pighammer album.

I hadn’t seen Rammstein since 2001 at the Pledge of Allegiance Tour so I was really excited to see them. They had been banned from the United States for nearly a decade and you could feel the excitement as we waited in line to be let in to the venue. I don’t think I have ever waited so long to see a band at the Jimmy Kimmel show as I did that day. We even got to hear the sound check.

The band was introduced by Jimmy Kimmel and they opened with their classic “Du Hast” complete with massive displays of open flames and fireworks. You could feel the heat from the flames even though I wasn’t that close to the stage! Till Lindemann had some crazy flamethrower gun that he used to set a roadie on fire during their performance of “Du Hast”.

I think it was the first time ever that a band has had pyrotechnics on the Jimmy Kimmel show and it was awesome. The band was GREAT!

With a night off between opening for Rammstein, Combichrist gave the fans a special treat headlining The Galaxy in Santa Ana. And they weren’t alone. Brandan Schieppati from Bleeding Through came out to sing his part in Follow the Trail of Blood. Gen from Genitorturers made her cameo for Kickstart the Fight. For the encore, Sin Quirin of one of the opening bands (The Great Americon) finished off the show.

Speaking of Genitorturers, Combichrist introduced their new guitar player Abbey Nex who has been in Genitorturers and most recently Psyclon Nine. He fits in the band well and I hope they start recording future albums with guitar on them (live drums too for that matter). I just hope they don’t follow the path of Psyclon Nine and try to go full metal. With Andy you’ll never know.

At this point I think I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen Combichrist. The live show just keeps getting better. Because of this, I make every effort to see them play whenever they come to town, even if they’re opening for Tiger Army…

After opening his set with three new tracks, Murphy’s proclamation was just as the title says.

“Fuck the songs,” he said.

Then he started chatting with the people in the front row as if he knew them forever. Joking of course, they jumped into Disappearing and continued rocking the show. They did a good mix of Bauhaus and solo material, including Strange Kind of Love with Bela Lugosi’s Dead lyrics sung at the end. Peter also sang Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, which he dedicated to Danny Lohner who was in the audience. Also sang as a dedication was the final song of the night All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, which was requested by a newly married couple.

While the guitars sounded amazing with just a perfect crunch tone, the rest of the audio didn’t get the same treatment. It was a little distracting seeing the bass player keep arguing with the sound guy to get turned up, or turned down, or to keep the levels where they were. Peter will always sound amazing though, regardless of the acoustics at the venue. He has the most distinct and powerful voice of the genre, and definitely one of the greatest of all music.

You know how some people make a “bucket list”; well I kinda have one with bands. Carlos Santana has been on my list and honestly I don’t know why it took me so long to finally see him. He is one of the greatest guitarists ever.

I saw Santana at The Joint in Las Vegas on my birthday! (I have to say it was one of my best birthdays ever.) The Joint has quickly become one of my favorite places to see bands.

The show’s not all about Carlos, his band is amazing!

The show features songs that span the performer’s entire career. The set list includes everything from “Evil Ways,” Santanas’s first Top 10 hit , including “Into the Night,” “Maria Maria,” “Jingo,” “Black Magic Woman,” “Oye Como Va,” (Tito Puente cover) as well as “Black and Black” (AC/DC cover) and “Sunshine of Your Love” (Cream cover). The show runs about two hours full of non-stop music.

The show gives homage to Santana’s Woodstock-era, with the current band playing “Soul Sacrifice” on stage as video showed Santana playing on stage at Yasgur’s farm. Watching the video and listening to the music totally felt like a blast to the past. Not that I was at age to be at the Woodstock festival on Aug. 15, 1969.

He did get a little talkative during “A Love Supreme,” asking, “What’s more important than peace?” and urging President Barack Obama to legalize marijuana.

I strongly suggest that if you haven’t seen Carlos Santana to ask yourself, “What the f**k am I waiting for?”

The masters of electronica have returned to Los Angeles, sadly in support of Linkin Park. I won’t be holding that against them as long as they come out with a new album this year and return with a headlining tour of their own. As you could imagine, the audience was mixed between Prodigy fans, Linkin Park fans, and their parents. Even though it was a Linkin Park show, I did meet a lot of cool people that night.

Their set was basically a shorter version of their Palladium set, missing standout tracks such as Voodoo People and Their Law. Still they put on an amazing show with nine tracks (ten if you count Omen Reprise) and no encore. I’m still waiting to hear live versions of some AONO tracks…

Highlight of the night had to have been the Zero Bullshit during Smack My Bitch Up. Yes it is something you usually see at a Slipknot show, as they did come up with the name, but Staples represented well that night. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you must Youtube that shit right now!

Posting with permission from Jerseydevil, here is his review of FNM! Thanks JD!

At the risk of ‘waxing poetic’ I cannot tell you how tremendous this show was last night. $20 tix available for tonight…if you can…GO! The band has never sounded better and bringing Trey Spruance instead of BSU Jim Martin was the right idea. Most of the set is later material that I don’t think Martin could have pulled off. They played enough of the ‘hits’ to please anyone but went pretty ‘off the page’ as far as their other choices. And maybe it’s because Patton has rarely performed live over the years but his VOICE…jayzus. To go from catterwauling to truly singing…amazing. Highlights…they opened to Peaches and Herbs Reunited…done straight, not for laughs and it was awesome. A snippet of poker face…and for me, one of the greatest FNM songs ever Just a Man…got emotional there folks…that song just has always hit me. Anyway, cannot recommend it highly enough, and I can only pray that this band decides to at least make another album. In the meanwhile I am going to be listening to a lot of FNM over the next few days.

Published by Qmungous, on December 3rd, 2010 at 1:45 am. Filed under: rock. | No Comments |

First of all, if you came here looking to read about the antics of the Black Veiled Brides, you came to the wrong place. I don’t have time for those losers. Second, sorry for another long delay in writing. It sucks when you don’t have internet at home…

The tour is in support of the newly released album Pins & Needles, an album that has taken it’s time to grow on me. Initially it didn’t grab me right away as Walking With Strangers did but hearing these songs live for the second time helped. The Birthday Massacre opened with the first track from the new album, In The Dark. Even though it’s new, the fans were already singing along as if they’ve known the lyrics forever. Chibi and the boys did a total of six new tracks, including my favorite from the album Midnight. Overall it was a good mix of old and new without missing a lot of favorites. One song I wish they would drop from the set though is To Die For. Not cause it’s a bad song, but because of the lyrical content hitting too close to home.

I’m happy to say that I finally got to meet The Bloody Lumberjack (TBL?) after seeing him at so many concerts, mostly in the moshpit. Actually, it’s always been in the moshpit now that I think about it. Also it was nice meeting The Spooky Vegan and Mr. 1996. You guys are all metal.

The Birthday Massacre has never disappointed me in the several times I’ve seen them and this night was no exception.

Or you might say congrats on an excellent adventure. Bakal arrived on the scene shortly before Aesthetic Perfection took the stage. The three man group led by Daniel Graves was all about energy as usual. Their set consisted mostly of tracks from A Violent Emotion, which is such a good album they could play the whole thing in it’s entirety for their set and I wouldn’t mind. We also got a taste of the new single The Devil’s In The Details.

Dust ‘n Bones, Dust ‘n Bones… When you hear those words, it’s a sign of awesomeness about to ensue. Combichrist came out to an instrumental to get the crowd hyped up. We were also treated to a huge surprise with Wes Borland joining them on guitar, which made it essentially the same lineup as when they opened for Tiger Army at the Wiltern. Word on the street says he will be playing with the band when they open for Rammstein at MSG! If only I could get to NY…

Andy appeared and they ripped into a powerful new track Just Like Me. Up next was another new track, Follow the Trail of Blood, in which Brandon from Bleeding Through joined in as he does on the album. And it was only fitting that after following a trail of blood we woke to a rain of blood. As usual the Electroheads were pumped to hear the old songs. Most of the new album was played, but it was still a good mix of old and new.

The double encore started with Scarred, the only track played from Today We Are All Demons. The band went backstage after finishing Fuck That Shit, but we knew it wasn’t over and the crowd began chanting “THIS SHIT! THIS SHIT! THIS SHIT WILL FUCK YOU UP!” Sure enough Combichrist came back with the crowd favorite This Shit Will Fcuk You Up. The show ended with another “fuck” song, the title track from What The Fuck Is Wrong With You.

But before the show ended I managed to score a stick from Trevor! I noticed all night he would do this move where first he throws a stick into the crowd, then jumps up on his drums and bangs away on the cymbal with the other stick. So one of those times he threw the stick right into the pit. I saw it fly right in the middle of everyone and I ran in there to pick it up off the floor. That’s the third stick for my collection!

But wait, there’s more! When the lights came on, we saw Bill MF Moseley hanging out on the side of the floor! Vince gave him the horns and he gave back the thumbs. Fucking awesome.